Painted portrait of Robert Schumann in his late twenties, wavy brown hair, black cravat and dark frock coat, against a slate teal ground

Portraits · Composers · IX of XVII

Robert Schumann

1810–1856 · Composer

You will only obtain mastery of form and the power of clear construction through the firm outlines of the pen. Write more than you improvise therefore.

Die Beherrschung der Form, die Kraft klarer Gestaltung gewinnst du nur durch das feste Zeichen der Schrift. Schreibe also mehr, als du phantasirst.

Robert Schumann · rules for young musicians, 1850
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Robert Schumann drew up a set of rules for young musicians alongside his Album for the Young, begun in 1848. This one warns against hours lost at the keyboard chasing "shadow pictures": form, he says, comes only through the pen.

In the winter of 1848–49 he drafted his Forest Scenes.

Musikalische Haus- und Lebensregeln (Rules and Maxims for Young Musicians), last two sentences of the rule beginning 'If heaven has gifted you with lively imagination'. Robert Schumann, Music and Musicians: Essays and Criticisms, First Series, trans. Fanny Raymond Ritter (London: William Reeves, n.d. [translator's preface dated New York, April 1876]), p. 417.

The originals

Lithograph of Robert Schumann by Josef Kriehuber, 1839: wavy hair, dark frock coat and cravat, seated, three-quarter view
The likenessDRAWN BY JOSEF KRIEHUBER · 1839Our portrait is painted after it.Public domain (lithograph published in Vienna, 1839; Kriehuber died 1876). Wikimedia Commons. Chosen over the 1850 Völlner daguerreotype, which is only 450 px on Commons.
A brown-toned page of handwritten piano music headed Einsame Blumen, a working draft with pencil marks
Waldszenen · Einsame Blumen, 1849A working draft of Einsame Blumen (Lonely Flowers), the third of his nine Forest Scenes, Op. 82, written over the winter of 1848–49.Autograph sketch, Austrian National Library, Mus.Hs.43000. CC0, Wikimedia Commons.